Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

After a three week hiatus, I'm back!  Things were a little hectic during the holiday and blogging just wasn't in the cards.  Now it's on to the intimidating challenge of trying to catch up on all that's been happening.

Before I get into the holiday festivities up north, I would like to mention a couple of fun things we did before we left Florida.  The first is that Duncan, the girls, Ron and Elaine, and Bruce along with Blake and Evan went on a bicycle fundraiser ride.  It was on Saturday night, 12/10, and was about an eight mile ride through the back streets of Casselberry.  We had seen it go by Ron and Elaine's house last year and were determined to join it this year.  Clearly it didn't work out for me to go but the kids had a blast being pulled in their trailers by the dads.  All the riders, which probably numbers in the hundreds, had their bikes decked out in lights and Christmas splendor.  There was even a police escort for them all so it was a pretty neat thing.  After that, the crew headed to the Oviedo Mall where they had brought in snow from the "North Pole" and had a bunch of other festivities.  Seriously, I laughed and laughed to myself when I saw the snow.  I kid you not but there were probably 40 kids in line waiting to stand on this snow(really ice) pile that was about the equivalent of the dirty snow that sits at the end of your driveway up north. I guess I wouldn't have laughed so hard if I had known then that this would be the only snow we would see this year. There was also a little man made hill that you could sled down. Again, rather pathetic but I guess this is what Floridians have to do to get their taste of winter.  The mall wasn't a complete bust though as Duncan got a few new suits at a really good sale they were having a Jos A. Bank.  The kids had fun, though, and that was what was important.

The sledding hill

The mound of snow everyone waited to climb on

One other little thing of note was that we were at Ron and Elaine's on that Tuesday night to see Santa Claus come to the neighborhood.  Typically he comes on a fire truck and we patiently waited for the sirens to go off warning us of his arrival.  We didn't hear anything and began to worry that he wasn't coming.  The only thing we heard was this little bell and barely gave it a second thought.  But upon going outside to see if anything was going on, low and behold, the bell was from the golf cart that Santa was on.  Boy, things must be really tough at the North Pole this year to downgrade that dramatically.  Santa stopped at a neighbors house and I asked Calleigh if she wanted to sit on his lap.  As soon as she saw the goodie bag he was giving out, she ran to the line and sat on his lap without a second thought.  All it took was a little candy and she was over her fear.  Aubree still wanted me to sit on his lap and then she sat on mine.

Aubree was so excited about the trip north that she wore her coat to bed.

The rest of the week was spent packing for the big drive which commenced at about 2 pm on Thursday (12/15).  Every year it seems to get a little tighter, which I suppose makes sense since we do have another kid since last year.  Of course, we were down one dog and that was a bit sad.  The girls are such great travelers but the big question was obviously how would Brady do over a 24-hour car ride.  The first two hours were great with Aubree and Brady sleeping but then we hit a traffic jam from an accident just north of Jacksonville and things went downhill fast. Brady woke up and needed to be fed so we got off the highway to quickly discover we weren't in a very good section of town.  But the baby had to eat so that was that.  Afterwards, I turned on his DVD player (I'm not a proponent of infants watching TV but I was willing to do anything to keep him quiet over that long period of time) and found that the picture wasn't working.  Major boneheaded move on my part for not checking it ahead of time.  I had to ask Siri to find us a Walmart which she did but every one and their brother wast a  Christmas shopping and I couldn't get anyone to help me.  On to Best Buy and fortunately, after waiting in line for at least 10 minutes to pay (which feels like an hour when you still have 22 hours of a car ride ahead of you), we had our new DVD player.  By this time, it was just about time for supper.  Needless to say, we were barely into Georgia and we had already been on the road for six hours and Duncan and I were feeling a little worried.  Thankfully, we were able to pull things together from there and the rest of the trip went pretty smoothly.  Brady had a few bouts of crying but it wasn't bad.  We arrived at my parents the next afternoon almost exactly 24 hours after we left.  

The highlight of the first weekend was a trip to Newport, Rhode Island for the whole extended family minus Ricky and Ana, Jonathan & Marcela, and David & Yully (who went to Columbia).  Someone counted that there were 31 one of us.  Lori and Charlie have a timeshare and got a great deal in getting us all rooms for Saturday and Sunday nights.  It was really fanstatic!  The way it worked out is that we stayed in a two-bedroom place with Devin, Leigh, Mia, and baby Bode.  Our place, at the Wyndham Vacation Resort, ended up being the hub of activity for the weekend and at times was a little tight with so many people packed in there but everyone loves each other so it wasn't a problem.  There was a great pool which was half inside and half outside and had a little water slide.  As you can imagine, this was a very popular spot for the kids and it was nice having them get some swimming time in after a hiatus.

On Sunday morning, we went to "The Atlantic Beach Club" for brunch.  I was glad to use my couponing prowess while were there.  I noticed that if you bought $100 worth of gift certificates, you would get $25 for free.  Our bill was at least $500 and we were able to buy the gift certificates and use it to pay for the meal.  Jackpot!  We were glad to pass the freebies on to Lori and Charlie as our thanks for the weekend. The food was really, really good too.  Afterwards we spent some time driving around looking at all the million dollar plus mansion.  In the afternoon, we did a book swap where many of us brought a wrapped used book and we did a "Yankee Swap" game with them.  Fun!  Then we watched the Patriots game and had a lasagna feast during halftime.  All in all, it was an awesome family time and we would love to make it an annual tradition if we could.  Oh, and the best thing was that we got to meet the new babies, Finley and Bode.  Finley is an absolute spitting imaging of her father, Sean, and I told Shannon that she was welcome to the club of women whose children don't resemble them.  Bode is only two months old and practically the same size as Brady.  We've discovered that people are already combining their names into "Brody" and calling them both that.

Cousin Acadia, 10 Months

The Atlantic Beach Club

Calleigh found this headband with an obnoxious bow at my parents and wore it like every day we were there.

Devin with Bode

Finley and Bode.  Who shrunk Sean down to baby size?  Seriously!

My mother (far right) and her three sisters.  I think this is an awesome picture of them!

Our room - - watching the Pats and eating lasagna.

The only small downside to being there was the cold weather.  Since we're right on the water, it seems particularly cold.  I'm always in a quandary of how to handle it.  The kids can't wear their jackets in their car seats so do you take the time to get them all geared up to go outside for like 10 steps, get them in the car, and then take it all off?  I tell you, these are things I'm glad I don't have to deal with down here.

We returned to my parents house on Monday morning and the rest of the week progressed in the whirlwind that it usually does.  Here's a summary of what we did each day:

• Monday night my parents took the girls and Camden to the house in Millis that is owned by a car dealer and has like a million Christmas lights.  Duncan and I used that time to run to Patriot Place where we saw some carolers which warmed my heart.  When we got home and asked how the house had been, Calleigh had a big frown on her face.  Turned out that she had fallen asleep as soon as she got into her car seat and had missed the whole thing.  Whoops!

Who doesn't love carolers??

• Tuesday evening we went to Edaville Railroad and I thought this was the best year we had gone most notably because it wasn't so cold.  But also because I got to go on some of the rides with Calleigh and seeing and hearing her joy was priceless.  The best one was the bumper cars.  I think it was the first time she had done bumper cars and seriously, she giggled and laughed the entire ride.  I loved it!  For some reason, maybe because it was always so cold, we had never done some of the rides but we hit them all this year and it was a complete success.  From what I understand, Aubree and Camden enjoyed their rides too but I didn't actually witness it.   

• On Wednesday we all went to the South Shore Plaza for some mall shopping and from there, Papa and Gigi took the three older kids to Santa's Village and a light show at Jordan's Furniture.  Funny how just having one kid to deal with seems so much easier but one you only had one kid, it felt a lot worse.  Anyway, Duncan, Brady, and I were able to get some more shopping done between there and the Wrentham Outlets.  The highlight of the day was once the kids were in bed and Duncan, Shawn, and Camille and I went to the CBS Scene Restaurant to celebrate our anniversary, albeit a day early.  It was late so we just went for dessert but Duncan and I got this dessert sampler that even a week later, our mouths salivate over.  But more importantly, some adult quiet time was SO nice.  

The girls made a beeline for the computers at the Apple store.  Duncan was so proud!

• Thursday was our nine-year anniversary so obviously, that was the big deal of the day.  Duncan surprised me with two dozen red roses and a lovely note.  What a guy!  I'm already thinking of what we can do to celebrate our tenth next year.  It's a big year as it will be my parents fortieth!

• The other big thing on Thursday was the Boston Pops.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, we were thinking only some of the Grodack clan would go but in the end, I really didn't want to break tradition and we all went.  First we went to the Cheesecake Factory at the Prudential Center which has become our new tradition the last few years after our previous restaurant closed down.  This was a down year for the Pops with people going out of town and the whole Newport thing.  No extended family came, just some friends.  No matter.  As we trudged along from the restaurant to  Symphony Hall we couldn't help but marvel how different it was from previous years.  It was like 50 degrees out and not a bit of wind.  Usually we're freezing our tails off.  As we took our seats, I was wondering to myself if I was crazy to bring a 4-year old, a 2-year old, and a 6-month old, to an 8 pm performance no less (of course, the girls are such night owls the time didn't really matter for them).  The first five minutes were a little rocky and then after that, they were amazing.  Brady slept until intermission and then was awake but quiet the second half.  The girls watched the whole thing and were quite into it, especially Calleigh.  There were a lot of different props and such which I think really held her interest.  I think she particularly like the reading of the Grinch set to music. So in the end, I was SO glad we all went and I'm still marveling at how well it went down. 

I lucked out in that they were able to wear their same church coats two years in a row.  There's the darn pink bow again.  It went with us to the Pops.

•   We did have a little drama at the end of the evening on the way back to our car.  We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory to use the restroom and when my mom, Gail Irrgang, Calleigh, and I walked into the restroom, we found a lady passed out lying in one of the stalls.  Just a little unnerving.  We tried to get Calleigh to crawl under and unlock the door but she was too scared.  Gail ended up wiggling under.  It turned out to be a late in her late 40's and when her husband came running in (he had been waiting outside the door for her and someone called him in) we discovered she only spoke French.  911 was called and she finally came too long enough for someone to get her up and put her in a chair but she seemed to pass out again sitting there.  We left and saw the ambulances arriving.  Who knows what happened and we'll never know but I'm sure Calleigh will remember that.  She kept asking if the lady was okay.  
• Friday we did a little last minute shopping and then a bunch of people came over my folks for Friday night dinner including Calleigh's pal, Bruno.  He may be seven and a boy but the two of them get along like two peas in a pod.    

Daddy took the girls to the playground on Friday.  Pink bow alert!

• Sabbath we went to the Norwood Church and once again, Calleigh and Aubree got to star in the Christmas program put on by the children's department.  They dressed up as angels and were very pleased.  I think anytime they have to dress up, it's a happy day.       
• Saturday night, Christmas Eve, we had a very nontraditional evening.  This mainly stemmed from the fact that the Case family went down to Tennessee for Christmas and weren't with us.  This was a tough pill to swallow as we've been having Christmas together since, I think, shortly after my grandfather passed away in 1988.  Instead, some friends came over which was nice but we sure missed the Cases.  A group went out singing carols around the neighborhood which the girls loved.  I stayed behind with Brady.  We didn't end up doing any games which was very strange but it was a down year for me planning them anyway.  

• Christmas morning went great.  We did our stockings first.  I had Camille and Duncan had my dad. Because of all our couponing, we already had most of our stocking stuffers from that so that was very handy.  The girls, as can be expected, loved ripping open all their presents and would get impatient at times while other people opened gifts.  I saved their big present for last which was a big box of dress up clothes that I had gotten off eBay.  I knew it would be a hit and it was.  Duncan's big gift, which I had gotten him, was this nifty thing called Fitbit, which is essentially a tiny device that you wear and it tracks your steps, how much water you drink, how much you sleep, etc.  It's really awesome and I would like one for my birthday. Hint, hint.  After the gifts and brunch, we watched our new favorite Christmas movie, It Happened On Fifth Avenue.  Highly recommend it!  

A few other notes about the trip:

• We were so disappointed that there wasn't any snow.  We saw a few tiny wisps on Christmas morning but that was it.  I had warned Calleigh before we got up there that there may not be any and she was quick to assure me that "It's okay.  We won't even want to go outside because we'll be so busy playing with our presents."  The girls still spent time playing outside and had fun but obviously the dreams of sledding and building snow forts was not to be.  But what can you do.  This is the first time in years without snow so I suppose we should be grateful that it's atypical.  

And there it is again.

• Things were quickly progressing downhill with Brady and his sleeping situation so it was a good thing we left when we did.  Because of the number of people in the house (Papa, Gigi, Shawn, Camille, Camden, Acadia, Bob, Ricky, Ana, Duncan, Corey, Calleigh, Aubree, Brady, and Karon (Camille's mother who was there part of the time)), the only place for him to sleep was in the bathroom in his pack n'play.  I couldn't put him in the room with the girls to sleep without us in there so the bathroom it was.  He did pretty well at first but the last few nights he kept randomly waking up and to avoid him crying and waking up other people, I would nurse him.  Definitely not something I wanted him to get used to!  I'm happy to report that since we've been home, he's been sleeping very well and has only woken up once during the night out of the five nights.  
• We were happy to have Ana with us for Christmas.  She was only going to stay until Friday night but Ricky convinced her to stay through Christmas and go back to Maryland with him when he went back on Monday.

Monday morning it all came to close when we departed for home.  Since we figured there would be a lot of holiday traffic, we left earlier than we normally would.  My usual plan of attack on these long road trips is to leave in the afternoon so that you split the day time driving up over the two days with the night in the middle to break things up.  Instead, we left at 11:00 am.  As expected, there was a bunch of traffic most notably in southern Connecticut, Exit 8 of the New Jersey Turnpike, and after the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  I have an app on my iPhone called "Waze" that's like a traffic guide and people post stuff to it in real time as they go so I was able to quickly and easily see where the traffic spots were and how long they would last.  It's also easy to find alternate routes although we ended up just sticking it out.  But somehow being able to see where it would end, helped it go by faster.  Duncan did the majority of the driving with me driving from 2 - 7 am.  The kids were really good, with a few little tears from Brady.  When we pulled into our driveway after the 25 hours, it was a beautiful sight.  But compared to the trip last year when we were all sick, this was a piece of cake!  As is his typical, Duncan threw out the "This is the last year I'm driving" line but I believe the finances of flying will dissuade him next year just like it does every other.  

Aubree pooped out after the trip.

So here we are back at home.  I'm still doing piles of laundry and it's coming out of my ears.  I seriously want to tell the girls to stop wearing clothes so I can just catch up.  It doesn't help that the girls wear like three outfits a day.  They are constantly changing clothes.  I don't know if that's a girl thing or what.  

It was a slow week as far as getting out and doing things since it's hard to enjoy myself with doing anything when my house is in shambles.  We did do a little shopping on Friday since Duncan had the day off and we were getting ready for Christmas 2.0 which we had last night.  That's the term for our Christmas with Ron and Elaine.  Russ and Saray joined in this year so that made it feel like even more of an event.  The highlight of the evening for the girls was a big doll house they got from Grandma and Grandpa.  Duncan got an Apple TV which he had been hoping for and I got a slow cooker that was high on my list.  

This is how we roll now at Publix.  Brady has graduated from the Bjorn to the cart.

Ron and Elaine got an XBox 360 with Kinect that allows you to do various exercises 

Yesterday did have a little drama in the morning.  I had gotten the girls up as usual and Aubree seemed a little whiny from the get-go.  Not that unusual actually.  But then she didn't want to eat breakfast and was just half lying on the couch.  A few minutes later she came into the kitchen and proceeded to throw up on the floor.  It was all pretty much liquid since she hadn't eaten so as far as throwing up goes, it wasn't that bad.  I thought maybe it was a one and done but over the course of the next few hours, she did it about three more times.  Needless to say, she didn't go to church.  She stayed home with Daddy and I went ahead with Calleigh and Brady.  She slept most of the morning when she wasn't vomitting.  She wasn't crying or anything just kind of listless.  She had no fever either.  Well, our lunch was lasagna and edamame (do people know about these?  The girls just LOVE to eat them out of the pod.) and she came right off the couch, sat down at the table, and proceeded to chow down.  And that was the end of the sickness. I have no idea what caused it as she had only eaten things that we had all eaten for supper on Friday night.  

Brady at Sabbath School.  I did clean those bells before he went to town on them.

Today we were back at First Watch.  Brady sat in the highchair for the first time.  We stopped at Walgreen's on the way there to pick up some Mum Mums to give him and he chowed down on those while we ate.  He ate two of them in fact.  This was his first "finger food" since he's just been eating baby cereal and canned food so far.  

First Watch

Duncan took them to the "Green" playground while I cleaned house.  Here their new friend Paige taught them some exercises.

This evening that Isidros came over and we caught up with them on their trip to Denver.  Those lucky dogs had snow.  We had haystacks and exchanged gifts with the kids.  At one point it seemed like all six kids were either yelling or crying and the downstairs looked like a disaster and I said "Someday we will look back at all this."  

Fooling around with Braelyn

I'm sure I'm forgetting dozens of things went on but this is it for now.  Have a great week!